New Delhi :
A special court in the Patiala House court has summoned Shashi Tharoor on 7 July to face trial in the four and a half year old case of his wife, Sunanda Pushkar’s death.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Visual took cognizance of the 3000 page charge-sheet and said,” There exists sufficient grounds to proceed against Tharoor for commission of offence in the case.”
The Thiruvananthapuram MP’s wife was found dead on the night of 17 January 2014 in a luxury hotel in New Delhi.
Tharoor is charged with 498 A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.
Tharoor’s counsel Vikas Pahwa said,” No offences are made out and the prosecution case is absurd and preposterous and is contrary to various judgements of SC. We shall take appropriate steps to deal with the charge-sheet.”
The Congress MP on 14 May had tweeted that he intended to contest the preposterous charge-sheet ‘vigorously’.
1/2 I have taken note of the filing of this preposterous charge sheet &intend to contest it vigorously. No one who knew Sunanda believes she would ever have committed suicide, let alone abetment on my part. If this is conclusion arrived at after 4+ yrs of investigation, (contd.)
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 14, 2018
2/2) it does not speak well of the methods or motivations of the Delhi Police. In oct 17, the Law Officer made a statement in the DelhiHighCourt that they have not found anything against anyone & now in 6 months they say that I have abetted a suicide. unbelievable!
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 14, 2018
The Congress MP had married Sunanda Pushkar, the Dubai based business woman in 2010.